AI vs Humans
Kesavan Hariharasubramanian
Results-oriented Data-driven IT Delivery Leader| Data Analytics / ML/ AI Evangelist | ex- iNautix, PwC, HCL, Cognizant, Western Union | Alumnus - CET (Trivandrum), IIT Kharagpur(VGSOM), Great Learning
In the world of IT, we are slowly approaching an inflection point where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking precedence over natural human intelligence that we are endowed with. Often, it seems ironical that something "Artificial" - i.e., a machine trying to emulate humans - has become more sought after than humans themselves.
How ever much machines try to mimic humans, we should draw comfort from the fact that machines cannot truly replace humans. At the same time, machines are endowed with a capacity to process a huge volume and variety of data at incredible speeds that humans cannot match. Let us understand some examples of where humans score over AI and vice-versa.
Where Humans score over AI:
- Humans have the capacity to emote and therefore can empathize with other humans and show compassion
- Humans have the presence of mind to think on the spot and come up with solutions to an urgent problem
- Humans have the ability to combine data as well as intuition in order to come up with creative solutions. Intuition is something that machines cannot acquire.
- Humans can make out sarcasm and fake emotions far more easily.
- Last but not the least, humans have the ability to define a purpose and a goal for everything they do.
Where AI scores over Humans:
- Since machines cannot emote, they are non-judgemental and therefore objective and unbiased. If at all there is a bias, it can only be a human-induced bias. Since emotions do not cloud the mind( i.e., its engine), machines do not show prejudice towards humans and hence the decision-making process is solely fact-based.
- When it comes to repetitive chores, machines do not lose patience or become bored unlike humans. For instance, if you consider an activity such as teaching a person to learn a subject, machines can repeat the lessons to anyone any number of times. Humans, on the other hand, could lose patience quickly and start becoming judgemental, angry or biased about that person.
- The phenomenal processing speed of machines provides them with an unparalleled capacity to process multifarious data, sense patterns and make predictions or provide actionable intelligence to speed up decision-making by a huge order of magnitude. Although the usefulness or reliability of the decisions depend on the data that are fed into the machines, humans simply cannot match the speed of machines. It is this aspect of machines that makes AI overpowering and therefore impossible to be ignored.
At the end of the day, humans still have an unassailable power and control over the data that are being fed to machines and hence one need not unduly fear about AI replacing humans. AI is here to stay for sure but it cannot co-exist without humans.
Disclaimer: All views expressed above are my personal views.
Human, Educator at IIM Ranchi, Inclusion Ally; Perpetual learner enthusiastic about Organization Development and Change Management, Leadership, Human Resource Management, DEIB, and Higher Education.
5 年Excellent article, Kesavan. Here are a few thoughts to consider. Have you noticed the proliferation of executive coaches and EI trainers? This is founded by the assumption that EI is a trainable skill. If that is indeed true, then maybe robots can be trained as well? Personally, I believe our ability as humans to emote or identify one is pretty overrated. You mention we can make out fake emotions. Not sure if we always can. More importantly, even if we could, can we resist responding to such emotions, in a timely manner? Do we not cry watching movies knowing very well these are paid actors simply doing their jobs? Think about the world of advertising, if people responded indifferently to the affective messages. Similarly, presence of mind also is pretty rare. If not, magicians and illusionists would never make a living. We do not always see the obvious. I think we are making it worse when I see people walking on the streets glued on to screens of variable sizes with noise-canceling headphones in the ears. Coming to purpose and goals, most of our day-to-day goals tend to reflect our past experiences. We tend to extrapolate behaviors/choices that led to past successes or avoid behaviors/choices that led to failures. Would this be very difficult to copy? Yes,? when you talk about dreams and "leap of faith" choices, in other words, seemingly irrational goal setting may be a difficult (if not impossible) proposition. What AI can accomplish today is constrained by our limited understanding of how the human brain works;? more we decipher the algorithms inside it, more capable the AI systems become :-)
Great job! Very interesting.
Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology ( BIMTECH)
5 年Interesting!?